Fourteen years ago, Yvette Jenkins started the second phase of her life.

After getting laid off from her corporate job in the midst of the Great Recession in 2009, she decided to launch YMJ Consulting Group the following year, selling handcrafted home goods, clothes and accessories from artisans around the world. Now known as Love Travels Imports, Jenkins sells products around Detroit and beyond, with items coming from the various places she has traveled such as South Africa, Haiti and Peru.

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But before she began running a successful business, the Rosedale Park resident sought help from TechTown Detroit in 2013. Jenkins was one of the first cohorts for the nonprofit’s retail boot camp, a 12-week program that prepares entrepreneurs for opening a brick-and-mortar location in Wayne County.

“It was great to have the camaraderie of other small businesses who are going through the same experience at the same time,” she said. “It gives you a network where you can have that shared experience and can provide encouragement.”

Already known as a hub for tech startups and neighborhood businesses in Detroit for more than 20 years, TechTown was recently recognized by the state of Michigan as an entrepreneurial hub, receiving millions of dollars in grant funding.

TechTown and the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation (DEGC) were among 27 establishments across the state — and the only two in the city that received the designation in November from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC). The average grant sizes for the organizations were $2.7 million, while TechTown and DEGC each received $3.4 million.

The initiative is being carried out through the MEDC’s Small Business Support Hubs program, which is funded by a one-time appropriation using American Rescue Plan Act dollars to create and operate programs to support small businesses impacted by COVID-19.

“By leveraging federal dollars, the Small Business Support Hubs will help us expand and improve resources across the state, as well as raise the national profile of the strength of our entrepreneurial community,” Amy Rencher, MEDC Senior Vice President of Small Business Services, said in the news release.

The hubs will offer resources such as one-on-one coaching, cohort-based learning and accelerators, mentor matchmaking, pitch competitions, networking events, access to capital, partner referrals and statewide resource navigation.

TechTown Chief Program Officer Christianne Malone told BridgeDetroit it’s nice to be recognized as a small business support hub.

“To have this compliment on the non-tech side of the work that we do is very significant because it really demonstrates the impact of our programming, the thoughtful leadership we have as a Wayne State’s entrepreneurial hub as well as the impact that our entrepreneurs have within the community as a whole, too,” she said.

How the money will be used

Lanard Ingram, DEGC’s public relations director, said the nonprofit is still solidifying details on how the $3.4 million grant will be used. However, DEGC is sharing the award with six partners – Build Institute, ProsperUs, Metro Detroit Black Business Alliance, Highland Park Community Kitchen, Milestone Growth Capital and Black Leaders Detroit. Together, the organizations will establish up to 25 entrepreneurial hubs in Detroit neighborhoods. Aspiring entrepreneurs and small business owners will have access to coaching, training, networking opportunities and other resources to help them with their businesses.

Meanwhile, DEGC and MEDC are also working together on five mixed-use developments in Detroit. The nonprofit was awarded $14.5 million by the MEDC to finance the development, which includes the renovation of the former Jefferson Intermediate School in Midtown into commercial space and 551 new residential units downtown and in the neighborhoods.

Over at TechTown, Malone said the grant will allow the hub to extend its services to the entire metro Detroit area, instead of solely focusing on Detroit, Hamtramck and Highland Park. She said $400,000 of the award will go toward technical assistance for small businesses such as developing websites, shelving inventory or finding a bookkeeper.

From this year to the end of 2026, the funding for the small business support hub will back about 3,303 entrepreneurs disproportionately affected by COVID-19 across Wayne County, TechTown says.

“We have this pot of technical support assistance dollars to really amplify not only the work that our Professional Services Network does in order to support these small businesses but really having a bigger pot to service even more entrepreneurs than we have been before,” Malone said.

“Being Wayne State’s entrepreneurial hub, we really have that true pipeline to help all businesses from early stage to growing and scaling. And this small business support hub really helps us amplify that pipeline that we have here and the support that we can offer for businesses through what makes us special, which is that one on one coaching.”

The grant will also help support existing TechTown programs like the retail boot camp that helped Jenkins launch Love Travels Imports.

Years after she participated, Jenkins continues to have a relationship with TechTown which is supportive of her business, she said. Jenkins has been invited back to TechTown to talk to other entrepreneurs, and the organization has offered her and other business owners opportunities to sell their products at Noel Night, the Fisher Theatre and the holiday market at Cadillac Square downtown.

“TechTown has been an important part of me even while still being in business. And I say that because especially at the beginning of the pandemic, they immediately jumped into action and got funding to provide grants,” Jenkins said. “I am very grateful for the opportunities. I’m very grateful that I’ve been blessed to get this kind of support.”